U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,170,434, 4,488,848 and 4,601,630 to Kress et al., assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, disclose vehicles that handle heavy loads. Vehicles constructed in accordance with these patents have proven themselves in the field for reliably and efficiently handling the lifting and transporting of straddled loads consisting of steel slabs and billets on the order of 100-150 tons.
However, as a result of their characteristic tong-type load clamping mechanisms, such vehicles are primarily arranged for handling slab-shaped loads, and are unsuitable for effectively engaging coil-shaped loads. This limits the usefulness of the vehicle, necessitating separate coil-handling and slab-handling vehicles at sites having both types of loads.